Inflatable Kayak Blog

Just wanted to drop in a quick reminder that PortableKayaks.com has added the complete line of Sea Eagle Sport Runabouts to their line of inflatable boats.

The Sea Eagle Sport Runabouts come in 10 and a half, 12 and a half and 14 foot lengths and feature an unique rigid inflatable keel that provides excellent tracking and speed. Their fiberglass reinforced transom has the strength and durability that plywood transoms just can’t match. And the extra large air chambers for incredible buoyancy and stability are made with Sea Eagle’s super strong 1000 denier material that you can hit with the claw end of hammer and not destroy.

By adding the Sport Runabouts to our line, we’ve expanded beyond the small fishing crafts into boats that can handle powerful gas motors enabling you to go boating on rivers, lakes, bays or oceans. You could even pull water skiers with these boats.

Check out the Sea Eagle Sport Runabouts at PortableKayaks.com.

(Candace Clayton is an author who’s written novels, poetry and other short stories. She was kind enough to write this fictional adventure series specifically for the Inflatable Kayak Blog about ‘The Traveling Man’, a kayaker who tells us tales about his youthful adventures with his buddies on the rivers where he grew up. We hope you enjoy it!)

(When left our hero, he and his buddy John we’re falling asleep with dreams of being the one to catch the biggest fish in the lake. Old Ed had promised them a fishin’ trip after their hard work on the farm. It was to be another eventful day … )

Sure enough, Ed woke us up bright and early the next morning. After a big breakfast, we made some sandwiches and grabbed a thermos of coffee for Ed, he couldn’t go more than a hour without his coffee, and headed for Ed’s rusty ol pickup. It was a gorgeous summer morning. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and the fish were sure to be biting.

When we stepped out the door, we saw a sight that stopped us in our tracks. Hitched to Ed’s truck, Bessie, he liked to call her, was the strangest looking boat we had ever seen. Ed chuckled at us and told us to close our mouths before we swallowed a fly. “Hadn’t you boys ever seen a pontoon boat before?” he says, “Thought you two grew up on the river?”

A boat he called it. No boat I ever saw two long, round things under it. Did that thing actually float? I wasn’t so sure, but Ed seemed to think it would, so we headed for the lake. Sure enough, when we got it off the trailer and into the water, it floated. I was amazed, to say the least. John was fascinated by the way the water churned up around them there pontoons and kept leaning over the side to watch. I told him to be careful; he always had been accident-prone. Captain Klutz we called him.

I was just throwing my line in, getting ready to catch a big one, when I heard a holler and a huge splash. Yep, John had gone in headfirst. I wasn’t worried, he could swim better than he could walk. I turned back around and watched my fishing bobber as it moved around on top of the lake. I figured John would climb back up on that pontoon boat in a few minutes.

After about five minutes had passed and no John, I began to get a little bit nervous. Where was he? He was gonna ruin my fishing time with his shenanigans. I was reluctantly pulling my shirt off to jump in after him, when his head popped up way down the lake. He was hollering something and waving his arms around his head. I couldn’t hear him, he was to far away. I yelled out, “Can’t hear ya!” He had swum closer to the boat by this time and I heard, “She’s here!” Well, I forgot all about fishing at that point. I whipped my shirt off and jumped right in that lake. Swimming out to where John was at, I started diving down as far as I could. We searched for hours, but didn’t see her again. Disappointed, we climbed back on the boat with Ed. Ed didn’t say a word.  He pulled his line in and set off to the bank.

That night after dinner had been eaten and the kitchen cleaned up, we went out to the front porch and Ed lit his pipe. After he got it lit and had taken a puff, he pulled it out of his mouth and looked at us. “You boys hunting the mermaid?” he asked. “You know about the mermaid?” I said, we hadn’t talked to anyone about her but each other. We figured people would think we were nuts. “Well, sure I do, most fishermen in these parts have seen her at one time or another. She wasn’t always a mermaid ya know.  No sir, she used to be just as human as you two boys. “ Feeling a good story-telling coming on, I had to ask, “What happened to her?”

“Well, it was a long time ago. There was a young Indian maiden, by the name of Talula. Her name meant, “Leaping Water.”  Talula was the most beautiful maiden in her tribe. She was to marry one of the best hunters in the tribe. Her half-sister, whose name has been forgotten with over time, was in love with the young brave and madly jealous of Talula. She went to the river, the night before Talula’s wedding night, and cast a spell on her sister. “ “The spell caused Talula to sleep walk into the river and she drowned. Legend says that after her death, the sprits turned her into a beautiful creature with the upper body of a young maiden and the lower body of a sea creature. She spends her days and nights making sure no other innocent suffer the same fate she suffered.”

We sat in silence on the porch, each lost in our thoughts. I could see in my mind, Talula, as she walked to her death, asleep and unaware. I looked at John and saw he was thinking the same thing I was. The lovely creature we had seen must have died in a similar manner as Talula. We knew we hadn’t seen Talula. The mermaid we had seen had blonde hair and blue eyes. There had to be more than one. We knew we would never give up in our quest to find her and see if we could discover how she became a mermaid.

(New Chapters of “The Traveling Man” series are published on a regular basis here in the Inflatable Kayak Blog. Check back soon for another chapter or set your computer to receive our RSS feed and you’ll be informed automatically when more stories are posted.)

The author, Candace Clayton, lives in Granbury, Texas with her Husband and family, spending as much time in the outdoors as she can.

(Candace Clayton is an author who’s written novels, poetry and other short stories. She was kind enough to write this fictional adventure series specifically for the Inflatable Kayak Blog about ‘The Traveling Man’, a kayaker who tells us tales about his youthful adventures with his buddies on the rivers where he grew up. We hope you enjoy it!)

Well, hello there, I see you are back for more of my little story. Anxious to hear if we found that there mermaid, are ya? I guess I will eventually get round to telling ya about that, but like my granpappy always said, “ A rushed story is like a shabby roofing job. Full of holes.”  So, all in good time my friend, all in good time.

Let’s see, last time we talked, John and I were hopping a bus, headed outta town. Yes sir, we were two young men out on our own for the first time. No more little boys going to school and doing chores. We were adults in charge of our futures and heading for a mighty adventure. A poorly planned adventure, I tell you what! We thought we knew it all, were prepared for anything. Our first few months away from home sure changed that. Yes sir, we quickly learned we were just young pups, still wet behind the ears. I’m not saying that we didn’t have fun, mind you, just that we still had a whole lotta learning to do.

Well, any who, there we were, on that ol bus. Had to be the oldest bus still on the roads. No shocks whatsoever.  That ol bus bounced and banged its way through dusty ol ghost town after ghost town. We sure picked the wrong bus for sight-seeing, I tell ya. Wasn’t nuthin to see out those cracked, dirty winders but cedar trees, cactus, and cows.  Looked pert near identical to our little home town. Finally, we came to the end of the ride. Yep, we had clean run outta money. No money, no bus ticket. The first of life’s lessons we learned. The bus driver set us off that bus in front of a ramshackle ol bus depot in the smallest town you ever did see. Wasn’t much there, just that bus depot that turned out to be the Post Office and the only fueling station in town. There was a little diner across the street. So, we picked up our bags and headed for it. We figured between the two of us, we had enough change for some soda pop to clear the dust from our parched throats. If we were lucky, we might even have enough for a slice of pie. We sure were hungry.

That little diner was plum near deserted. Wasn’t anyone to be seen, but the waitress behind the counter and a grizzled ol man down at the far, sitting on a stool, sipping coffee. Coffee! It had to be over 100 degrees out and he was drinking scalding hot coffee.  John and I nodded hello and took our seats at the other end of that counter. Wasn’t long before we were sipping our soda and sharing the best piece of apple pie we had ever eaten. I considered myself an expert judge of good apple pie. My momma, God rest her soul, made the best apple pie in town. She always took the blue ribbon home from the county fair. The other ladies in town were always trying to figure out her secret. But I am telling ya, whoever it was that had made that pie, had an angel’s touch with the crust. I can still feel that buttery crust, so flaky it melted on your tongue.

Well, as I was a saying, there we were scarfing down that pie like it was the first thing we had eaten in days. Course, due to our lack of funds, it was. The ol man said something to the waitress. A few short minutes later, she was setting a plate with two huge sandwiches on it, right smack in front of us. Smiling at our baffled looks, she told us that Ed, the ol man down the other end of the counter, was paying. We looked at Ed and mumbled our thanks around huge mouthfuls. I reckon he heard our stomachs complaining from the other end of that diner.

Yep, that’s how we met ol Ed. He took us under his wing for three whole months. Put us to work hauling hay. I tell ya, that is back breaking work. Paid well though and Ed gave us room and board on top of our weekly pay. We were able to put back our earnings and save up for when we headed back out on the road. After that first week, when we were so sore that every muscle in our arms and backs were a cursing us for the abuse, Ed says, “Boys, you did a fine job this week. Let’s go fishing tomorrow.”  Tired and achy as we were, our ears perked right up! It was decided we would get up early the next day and head to the local lake. We fell asleep that night with dreams of being the one to catch the biggest fish in the lake.

(Did they catch a ‘big one’ or did they catch something else? Visit the Inflatable Kayak Blog (on Thursday, 3-25-10) for part 2 of our story. If you’d like, you can set your computer to receive our RSS feed and you’ll be informed automatically when the next part of the story will be posted.)

The author, Candace Clayton, lives in Granbury, Texas with her Husband and family, spending as much time in the outdoors as she can.

It’s pretty easy to go to the computer, pull up a map web site and find a new waterway where you can plan a paddling adventure. It’s a great resource. But many of the people I’ve talked to also recommend the Delorme’s series of Atlas and Gazeteer Map Books. The Delorme books are considered some of the most detailed maps available, in some cases they even include unused old roads that aren’t much more than hiking paths anymore. That’s what you call “detailed”.

The DeLorme company was founded in the mid 1970′s by David DeLorme who became so frustrated by the only available maps of an area in Maine that he decided to create one that lived up to his expectations. According to Wikipedia, DeLorme combined state highway, county, and town maps as well as federal surveys to produce ‘The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer’ which was printed in a large format book with an initial printing of 10,000 and marketed out of his car. The Gazetter listed bicycle trails, canoeing and kayaking trips, museum and historic sites and proved successful enough to expand into other states. The Delorme’s Atlas and Gazeteers Series now offers Maps for almost every state in the United States.

So, if you are one of those kayakers who likes to combine your paddling with discovery, you might want to check into the DeLorme’s series of map books.

No, this isn’t a tip about how to use duct tape (aka ‘Duck Tape’) as a PFD (personal flotation device). I’m sure that one won’t work. But duct tape can be considered a lifesaver because of it’s many, many uses. The tricky thing is how to carry it with you on your paddling, camping or fishing trips since it’s totally impractical to carry along a big bulky roll. Here’s a way you can carry a small supply with you on your outings. Wrap a few feet around a disposable lighter. You will be ready for any emergency and it won’t take up much space in a backpack or dry bag. The lighter might come in handy, too.

(Following our previous guest blogger’s post about kayaking in the Emerald Isle, we had another blog submission from Thomas Alan Gray about a good source to help plan a trip.)

Planning a canoeing or kayaking trip in Northern Ireland? A terrific planning resource is canoeni.com. “Northern Ireland has a lot to offer the recreational paddler,” notes the site. “It has natural resources to cater for all aspects of canoeing and kayaking at all levels, from surf to white water to open and flat water paddling.”

Although the site is mainly oriented to canoeing, the Where to Paddle section will be of particular interest to kayaking enthusiasts. This section offers maps of Northern Ireland, each showing locations for flat water, sea kayaking, kayak surfing, and white water. The maps allow the user to select a particular stretch of water and drill down for further details about grade, water conditions, access and egress sites, points of interest, and local history. Important knowledge to match up with your kayaking abilities and the capabilities of your hard shell, folding or inflatable kayak. 

Flat Water Kayaking Trips in Northern Ireland
The flat water sections, eminently suitable for recreational canoeing and kayaking, are mostly in the loughs (lakes), the Quoile Estuary in the east, and the Lower Bann and Blackwater Rivers.

Where to Go Sea Kayaking in Northern Ireland
Sea kayaking sites range from the tidal reaches along Donegal on the north down along the eastern coast to the overfalls and races at Carlingford Lough on the south. There are islands to hop, rocks to dodge, caverns to explore on anything from a day trip to a challenging expedition.

Northern Ireland White Water Kayaking Trips
White water for canoeing and kayaking can be found throughout Northern Ireland, with runs mostly ranging from Class I to Class II, but with higher difficulties on specific rivers and stretches (the mountain spate river Glenam has Class IV-V stretches with large drops and heavy rapids, for example). Many stretches have rapids and weirs to run. Some of the weirs can be dangerous to fatal.

Kayak Surfing in Northern Ireland
For kayak surfing, head to the north coast. “Great surf for all levels of experience from the beginner to the pro!” says canoeni.com. The surf sites stretch in a narrow belt from Benone to White Park Bay. With the exception of White Park, the surf areas have nearby car parks and most are within walking distance of a town so facilities are handy.

Countryside Recreation in Northern Ireland
This well-designed and functional web site is maintained by The Countryside Access and Activities Network (CAAN). The CAAN was established in 1999 as a charitable organization mandated to provide strategic development, management and promotion of countryside recreation. It serves as an umbrella organization, bringing together groups interested in or involved with Countryside Recreation in Northern Ireland.
In addition to kayaking and canoeing, “countryside recreation” includes walking and hiking, climbing and “coasteering”, cycling and mountain biking, orienteering, and development and maintenance of environmental trails. Surely there’s a lot to do before and after a kayak expedition!
Anyone planning a kayaking trip to Northern Ireland can spend happy hours investigating and planning by simply checking in at canoeni.com.

(About the Author: Thomas Alan Gray has done whitewater kayaking in Germany and both flatwater and whitewater canoeing in Canada. He was a certified recreational canoe instructor while serving as a leader with Scouts Canada. He’s camped in all four seasons for more years than he cares to admit.)

Yes, Virginia, there are! I’m sure many of us have been kayaking in clear waters and wished we could see what’s under the boat. Understandably, for those who view the world with the less optimistic, ‘glass half empty’ philosophy, it could be a little scary to see what’s under the boat. But realistically, viewing the breathtakingly beautiful underwater world can be quite amazing.

The new Conquest Dyad clear bottom inflatable kayak has two clear panels made of a Clear 40 gauge PVC, that’s, of course, durable enough to stand on. Although light scratches or slight discoloration will not mess up your viewing, it is a good idea to be careful about dragging the kayak on the ground or leaving it out in the sun, which can discolor the panels.

The Dyad is an 11 foot inflatable kayak that’s easy to inflate, store and transport. It’s only 35 pounds. It’s also made so that it can be paddled solo or in tandem. The bladders are made of 20 gauge PVC sheet and they are covered by a 1200 denier marine polyester outer shell, all high quality material.

So if you’d like to do some snorkeling in an your inflatable kayak, without getting into the water and without a mask, maybe you should take a look at the Conquest Dyad clear bottom inflatable kayak.

By Guest Blogger … Sheryl Connelly

Ahhhh.. March. A time to turn our thoughts to the greening of the countryside and a little wearing of the green for St. Patrick’s Day. But have you ever thought it a time of sea-kayaking in Ireland?

Sea kayaking is fast becoming the raging sport in the Emerald Isle for natives as well as those visiting from abroad, even in winter. Imagine coming face to face with puffins (the real ones that PakBoat Puffin Kayaks are named after) and seals, or harvesting muscles in the wandering sea-caves, islands and coves that dot the coastline. Experience the amazing scenery, nature, and wildlife that Ireland has to offer at an unhurried pace while you listen waves of the Atlantic gently lap against your kayak.
I know what you’re thinking. Sounds like a great trip, I’m so in! Ho there, adventurers. In addition to general paddling skills, you need complimentary skills such as navigation, tides, weather, route-planning, weather forecasting basics and technical stroke improvement before you venture out into the Irish Sea. The importance of appropriate judgment calls and seamanship skills are critical to not only trip enjoyment, but survival.

So how can you learn all of these advanced skills if you are a lake or river paddler? And how do I transport my kayak on Aer Lingus?

Good news! There are hundreds of sea-kayaking businesses in the coastal towns of Ireland catering to beginners that are more than happy to teach you the ropes. Best of all, most provide ALL the essential equipment you need so you can save room in your luggage for mementoes. However, in the spirit of being good boy/girl scouts make sure to come prepared with the “little” things:
·    A swims togs / shorts (for under your wetsuit!)
·    A towel
·    A pair of trainers / sandals that you don’t mind getting wet.
·    A sun hat / sun cream
·    A water bottle
·    Waterproof / disposable camera (optional)
·    A sense of enthusiasm / Adventure!

During the winter months you could also take along:
·    Thermal undergarments
·    An extra fleece top
·    Warm hat

Fishing anyone? Try your hand at netting your big catch in a sit-on-top kayak. Why fish from a kayak when you can hire a charter boat? Kayaks allow you to go where and when YOU want to. Too shallow for the bigger boats? Too steep or rocky a coast line to fish from or too muddy to wade?  Open yourself to a whole new experience by combining Sea Kayaking and Sea Angling.

Are you an intermediate kayaker looking for a romantic way to pop the question, celebrate your anniversary, or note a special occasion? How about a moonlight paddling expedition? Allow the quiet magic of Ireland embrace you and your loved one, while all the sounds of the sea are amplified. The heightened sense of awareness, beautiful night skies, and lighthouses guarding you as you paddle set a dreamy backdrop to your exceptional day.

Check out these fun links for more information or to plan YOUR next adventure:

http://www.seapaddling.com

http://www.h2oseakayaking.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9ICSqwOIoc

Sheryl Connelly is a frequent visitor to Ireland and an avid outdoors woman. Her next trip to Ireland is tentatively scheduled for late March. Learn more about Sheryl at www.sherylbrennan.com or http://www.managemmm.com.

I know what you’re thinking … “Sharp Fish Hooks” plus “Inflatable … anything” equals “Deflation”! Not so with the quality of kayaks you’ll find on the market today. They’re a far cry from the older ‘pool toy’ versions of the past. Newer inflatable kayaks can stand up to the claw end of a hammer or the sharp toenails of man’s best friend. Needless to say, they’ll also survive even a fishing hook. They’re affordable, too. I’ve seen complete packages as low as $199 for a kayak, pump and paddles. The prime benefit is portability. An inflatable kayak will fit into a car trunk, with room to spare. No need to pull a boat trailer or use a car top rack.

Another advantage that fishing with an inflatable kayak offers is the ability to go into deep weeds or into shallow water that you might not be able to do, even with a small bass boat. Of course, the paddling instead of motoring might give you a little more exercise, but, hey, couldn’t we all use a little more of that anyway? Next time you’re shopping for a fishing boat, check out an inflatable kayak. It’s definitely an option worth looking into.

The first kayakers paddled crafts made of wood stick frames covered by animal skins and Archaeologists have found evidence they may have existed as long as 4000 years ago. Today, the folding kayak is the closest you’ll get to that original design, but folding kayaks have been around for quite awhile as well. Recently I saw this picture of an ad in a German newspaper that came out in 1910. The ad was for a “new” product, a kayak that folds! It was from the Klepper company, headed by Johann Klepper, who was a pioneer in the design and manufacturing of folding kayaks. We’re not sure of the exact ‘birth’ date of the folding kayak, but here in 2010, we’re sending out a hearty “Happy 100th Birthday” to the predecessor of the amazingly versatile and lightweight folding kayaks we know today.